NOTES 
A Note on Walford’s Transformation 
Robert H. Riffenburgh^ 
Walford^ determines the asymptotic maxi- 
mum of growth of an organism (or popula- 
tion) in the following manner. If size measure 
at successive ages N is plotted along an 
abscissa and size measure at successive ages 
N+l along an ordinate, the points of inter- 
section will form a linear function, say Li, with 
slope less than unity. The line N = N+1, say 
L2, will be the line of no growth; i.e. if size at 
age N+l is the same as size at age N, no 
growth has occurred. The intersection of these 
1 University of Hawaii and Pacific Oceanic Fishery 
Investigations. Manuscript received August 7, 1958. 
^ Walford, Lionel A. A new graphic method of 
describing the growth of animals. Biological Bulletin 
90(2); 141-147. 
two lines represents the desired asymptotic 
maximum for growth. 
But Li is a line whose parameters are esti- 
mated from random variables and therefore 
which is itself a random variable. Often the 
slope of Li is so similar to that of L2 that the 
random fluctuation of Li makes the desired 
point of intersection uncertain. 
In general, if N+k, k a positive integer, 
is plotted against N, the same asymptotic 
maximum will occur, but Li will have slope 
sufliciently deviant from that of L2 to permit 
confidence in the asymptotic maximum, k is 
chosen as the smallest integer assuring suffi- 
cient deviation. 
News Note 
THE TENTH PACIFIC SCIENCE CONGRESS 
The Pacific Science Congresses are held 
under the auspices of the Pacific Science 
Association. The Association was founded 
in 1920 by the holding of the First Pan-Pacific 
Scientific Conference in Honolulu, Hawaii. 
A number of institutions and organizations, 
from 1900 on, planned and worked towards 
the systematic exploration of the Pacific, but 
the direct action resulting in this first Pacific 
science congress came from the Committee on 
Pacific Investigations of the U.S. National 
Research Council and its predecessor under 
the National Academy of Sciences, the Com- 
mittee on Pacific Exploration. 
The work of the Committee between 1916 
and 1919 brought out the complexity of the 
problem, and a plan for a conference at which 
representative scientists from Australia, New 
Zealand, Java, China, Japan, Canada, conti- 
nental U.S. and Hawaii, and the Philippines 
might be present. 
The committee accepted the proposal that 
the conference might meet in Honolulu in 
1920 under the auspices of the Pan-Pacific 
Union— a Hawaii organization devoted to 
developing friendly relations among the dif- 
ferent nationalities of the Pacific. The pro- 
gram of the conference was arranged through 
211 
